A bad day at work
by WaywardScribe
Summary: Cal, Niko and Robin are far from home, running for their lives (in a Ferrari) from a job gone horribly wrong. Action/Angst/HC. Set post-Roadkill.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All characters are the property of the awesome Rob Thurman - Just damaging slightly for entertainment, then will return all fixed up (mainly) after some Angst/HC.

Warnings: Just for some language from our eloquent Caliban.

Timeline: Post-Roadkill.

A/N - I'm actually in the middle of Masters exams/revision at the moment (so totally logical time to write a little more fan-fic) but hey, I couldn't resist! I haven't yet read all the books, I'm saving 'Blackout' for post-exams! Also not from the US so please forgive issues with that, I try to write like I am anyway! Thanks to all who sent me such nice positive reviews from my first story, Obi the Kid especially :) I hope everyone likes this one as much, or more! I'm a big fan of action along with angst/hc so this is kind of an attempt at a bit of both.

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"Cal!"

My Desert Eagle was shoved into my waiting hand as I reached back into the car window. It was quite a feat for the Puck who was simultaneously holding down my lower legs so I didn't take a swan dive from the speeding vehicle.

"Thanks!" I shouted back at him, my voice lost in the wind as we pushed 180 down the increasingly dark, deserted highway.

We were in the plains of Texas, in a brand new Ferrari no less, Goodfellows latest proud acquisition - don't ask. A band of Frains were chasing us. God-awful creatures who unfortunately also seemed to have a penchant for speed right now - and were chasing _us_ down route 45. Fucking chasing _us_! This was not the way it was supposed to work. How had we got _here_? Good friggin' question. I'd been asking myself that all day. It was a long story.

"Cal!"

This time it was Niko, who was driving, and this time, as always, it was loaded with much more than my name.

To Robin it was probably just a "get-your-ass-back-in-the-goddamn-car" but to me it was "please be careful, I can't help you while I'm driving 180 and you're hanging out the goddamn window". What else was I going to do? It was our best defense right now. Not that running in the opposite direction as fast as your Ferrari could carry you was any kind of defense.

Everything had gone horribly wrong. We had been royally screwed by our latest client. So much for me convincing Niko that we should take work that; 1) Took us well away from New York. Robin was pro-the-road trip at the time, might have had something to do with a new Ferrari though. 2) Was not directly referred through Robin or Promise and 3) Paid enough to set us up for a long, long time, I thought grimly. Chalk another one up to the "Cal fucked-up" list.

"Shit" the SIG in my left hand jammed. Damn it, I knew I'd had a few rounds left too. I discarded it in favor of the only weapon remaining, the Eagle Robin had just handed me. It suddenly felt wrong having only one gun in my hands. I'm sure that was supposed to say something about my personality or some shit like that, but hey, 'probably right if it did.

_How the hell did we get here?_ I thought again, firing. I felt Robin grasp more of my leg as the recoil coupled with the blasting air threatened to send me flying again. I could barely see in the fading light, my eyes stinging with the dust kicked up off the road and our occasional trips off of it.

"Cal, hold on!"

Nik again, quieter, though I could tell he was shouting, his voice just lost in the wind.

I felt the weight of the car shift beneath me as we turned into a long sideways slide. I took the opportunity and fired from the new angle, finally taking out one of the tires of our pursuers.

"Robin I need more ammo!" I called as the car straightened out onto a side road.

"that's the last of it Cal, we're out!" he replied, muffled. I could tell he was doing one last visual sweep of the car anyway.

Fuck. This was turning out to be one hell of a bad day at work. The job had gone wrong from the start. The look on the Pucks face was one I had never seen before and didn't hope to again. I think Niko saw it too. It spoke of an imminent battle we were ill prepared for and could not win. Goodfellow had seen his fair share over battles over his many years. He should know.

So we ran. Strategic retreat. Lived to fight another day and all that crap. It hadn't quite been that simple though, was it ever? And the day wasn't done with us yet.

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	2. Chapter 2

"Fuck!"

I swore as a spray of bullets peppered the back of the Ferrari. I also heard Robin do some kind of growl which reminded me of when the werewolves find their tequila bottle empty. No doubt he was lamenting the new holes in his baby.

We were still doing triple figures and Nik was now shouting at me again.

"Get back in the goddamn car Cal!"

Ok, so maybe I'd just felt one of those bullets graze my forearm, so maybe he had a point. I scrambled back into the passenger seat, half pulled in by Robin, who did not look best pleased.

"..my car! My beautiful.."

"shut up Robin, we don't have time for this. Cal, you ok?" snapped Niko.

How he managed to concentrate on driving at this speed, being concerned for me and putting up with Robins mini-meltdown - and all just with the slightest frown, I have no idea.

"Yeah I'm fine, nothing a Band-Aid couldn't fix" I replied with a wry grin. "So, any ideas on how we get out of this one, big brother?" the barrel of the Eagle lay hot against my leg, my face burning from the battering of dust laden wind.

Our eyes met for a moment in the dim light. For a second I was worried, then the corner of his mouth quirked slightly and he got the strangest look in his eye. If I didn't know my brother so well, I would have said it was almost, mischievous. My brother was rarely mischievous. Unless you counted sneaky slaps to the back of my head, but that was more of an everyday occurrence than mischievous. A little uptight sometimes, maybe, over-protective, sure – but mischievous? This did not bode well.

"well, actually" he turned to look back over his shoulder at Robin "but you're not going to like it very much."

I decided it was probably the car. Nik had always liked his cars. I remember that from when I was barely out of diapers. He'd ended up with life-on-the-run, practical, inconspicuous rust buckets though. Thanks to me. If not for me, he would probably have been a doctor or a lawyer or something way cooler and actually would have been able to afford one of these. Still an ass-kicker in his spare time though. Masked vigilante in the evenings or something. I should have known a Ferrari would have had this effect. I snapped back to reality, to find Robin was on a roll.

"..what's not to like, I'm in redneck-ville, arse-end-of-nowhere…with you two, in my prized possession, which now has ventilation - which was not an optional extra might I add…being gunned down by a gang of Frains, like some bad movie!" he took a sharp breath "no, worse, sequel!" he paused, "Goddess, I hope I live to have a sequel!" the Puck lamented.

"So, I'm guessing you won't like _any _plan then" I smirked back at him. I couldn't help it. Imminent death was never a time to hold back on a smirk when one was called for, especially when Robin was involved. He shot me a look Thor, god of thunder himself would have been proud of.

"Ok so, what exactly is this plan I'm in no way going to like, condone, or likely even consider?" he huffed.

"Get down!" Niko called as a further bullet spray came our way, we all ducked just in time as the windscreen spidered into a thousand fractures and visibility reduced to zero.

"Got it!" I shouted immediately, pre-empting Nik's request and leaning back in the seat to kick out the destroyed screen as best I could to restore a little vision. "So, this plan?" I shouted over the new roar of the wind as the windscreen hung half off and the car snaked side to side, my brother fighting the wheel for control. I didn't hazard a look at Robins face.

"Frain's hate water right?

"Yeah, like Gremlins!" I returned with a final kick of the screen, "nasty, big-ass Gremlins with AK's!"

"What in the great Zeus are Gremlins?" Robin interjected. We ignored him.

"Not sure whether to be underwhelmed with your Frain knowledge or your movie reference" Nik replied. I swear to god he nearly, nearly, grinned though. I think he was enjoying the chase, shame it was us who were the prey right now. I think my brother needed to get out more. Or he was spending too much time with me. Probably both. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good chase, I just prefer to be the chase-er not the chase-ee.

"It's not after midnight though" he added. I swear I nearly rolled my eyes at him. Yep, it was definitely the Ferrari. I didn't blame him. If anyone would've let me drive, I'd have been the same, probably worse, but as Robin put it, "hell had not yet frozen over". Despite our current predicament it was still nice to see Nik 'almost' grin and I found myself grinning back.

"I know where there's a river up ahead" he continued "if we can somehow get them.."

"yeah, uhm, _'somehow'_?" Robin interjected, "Niko they're not just going to roll up and take a swim!"

Nik swung the car around another curve in the road. The Puck continued, skeptically "What, we're just going to drive on in there and hope they, what, follow us?!" he paused, "and..and..my car!"

"Do you have any better ideas Robin?" Niko countered "because we have one gun, no ammo and we're out of options"

"They might have AK's and outnumber us but they aren't known for their intelligence" Nik argued. "We can't run forever"

"I could maybe.." I started.

"No. No way in hell. Or out of hell for that matter" Nik snapped, before I could even get the word out. "We're not risking that again, it's not been long"

"but Nik.."

"No Cal"

"Niko.."

"No Robin"

I'd gated once already earlier today. Well, I guess you could maybe say it was twice actually..well, call it one and a half. Anyway, that was a whole other story.

"We're nearly there, Cal, get in the back with Robin"

I could see a dense area of small trees up ahead in the murky darkness and what looked like maybe a fenced bridge.

"but Nik, come on!" I shouted, "it's travel, or a watery death by giant Gremlin!" I stayed where I was adding, "and I know what I'd choose."

"Cal, get in the back!"

I glared at him, or at least I tried to, but I think it was lost in the chaos of speed and dust. I also felt remarkably like the family dog being told to get in the back like I'd snuck into the front seat while at the gas station. I could make a gate in seconds before Nik could even argue..

"Don't you dare" he followed, he always could read my mind, damn it. "I mean it, I'll get us out of this".

I glanced back at Robin who looked like he had about as much faith in that statement right now as I did. Or maybe he was just worrying about the car, I couldn't tell.

It turned out that none of us had to make a decision. It was made for us, seconds before we reached the bridge. We'd all been too busy arguing to notice another battalion of Frains in a truck who were now barreling towards us from the side road.

The impact was like nothing I'd ever felt. A deafening scrunch of metal that seemed to go on longer than I knew it should. Through hazy awareness I realised we'd been flipped onto our side and were being pushed down the road at speed by the huge truck. There was a splintering of wood and then a feeling of weightlessness. Maybe watery death by giant Gremlin wasn't too far off after all.

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	3. Chapter 3

**A/N** - Firstly-sorry everyone! I hadn't planned on it being this long till I updated, long story short - Masters degree exams, high workload and tendonitis in my writing hand/wrist has made for a pretty awful month of pain and issues typing and writing. However, I get frustrated at posted unfinished stories that never get finished - and rest assured, I plan never to be one of those people! So, well, I hope you enjoy and please let me know if you like it – my reviews have genuinely been keeping me going. I hope this doesn't disappoint! It's surprisingly hard to go from writing technical reports to writing Cal swearing! but hopefully I've kept the swearing out of the reports and vice versa!

**Warnings**: Language, from pretty much everyone, even a little from Mr Ninja himself, but we'll forgive him. I kinda found it necessary considering the situation.

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Well that certainly hadn't turned out as planned. I'm pretty sure we were not supposed to be the ones sinking butt-first into whatever-the-hell-river this was. I must have only been out for a few seconds but the shock of the cold water brought me round.

We were sinking fast, really, really fast. Water spilled in seconds through the half open windows and the gaping hole where the windscreen had been. I had no time to call out or even look for the others before we were completely immersed, cocooned in a Ferrari-shaped death-trap.

You'd have thought an open windscreen would've made a great escape route, but this was the worst fucking day at work, ever. Lady-fucking-luck was off somewhere pointing and laughing her head off at our sorry asses, because I realised I couldn't move. I was pinned. Skewered like a half-Auphe steak burger, through my thigh to the seat below by a long slither of wood. I knew it went all the way through. Weird that I didn't feel a thing though. I still did my best to pull at the door, hammer on the windows, anything. Nothing budged, not in time. Not before the water pressure was too great and we were all swimming with the fishes.

A strange set of noises, out of place, were followed by something grazing my shoulder. It should have stung like a bitch but I barely registered it. Shit. The Frains. Persistent little bastards. They were firing from the bridge, the bullets didn't penetrate far through the water, but we were clearly still near enough to the surface for a stray bullet to connect with my arm. I tried in vain to pull at my skewer with my other hand, to no avail. As if we weren't fucked enough already.

The river must have been pretty deep and slow moving because the only feeling I had was of being dragged down, as if some water giant had grabbed me from below and was pulling its prey to darker depths. I fucking hoped there weren't such things as water giants. I'd have to ask Robin, if we ever made it out of this. Had I hit my head too? Probably.

Everything was bubbles and swirling, pressure and panic. Panic. I didn't panic. You learned not to panic. I had learned not to panic. Well, I'd learned to take those reins and pull back, just for the few moments your mind and body screamed at you to just let it all go and go postal. Panic was a luxury you couldn't afford in our business. I couldn't afford it now. It wasn't just me in this sinking $300,000 metal coffin.

Unfortunately my subconscious thought differently about the panic. I didn't mean to, I didn't think I had even thought it, but I made a gate. Unfortunately this skewered half-Auphe was about as much use as an energiser bunny on carrots right now. A pathetic and completely useless swirl of black and silver appeared in front of me momentarily, no bigger than a basketball. Salome might have made it through, had she been here, but there was no hope for anything bigger. It had one use though, illuminating the car interior, just long enough for me to locate Niko and Robin.

Nik was pinned behind the drivers wheel. He wasn't moving and he didn't appear conscious, his head resting against the window, tilted away from me. My stomach dropped and for a moment it was a dred far worse than panic that rippled through me. I tore my eyes away to find Robin inches from my face, he had hold of my shoulders and was shaking me, which really wasn't a good idea considering my situation, but it was fine, I couldn't feel shit. It felt like minutes but it must only have been seconds. Gees, Robin looked like crap, his shirt was all torn up, his eyes wide.

I stared back at him blankly. I wasn't panicking. I was choking. Metaphorically, choking. Not so much physically. I was choking when I was needed the most, when my brother needed me the most. I was frozen. Not just physically stuck. I was useless. Useless without my gating ability. Speaking of which, the mere cat-flap of a gate in front of me spluttered and died, leaving me with the worse than usual feeling of my head splitting in two and I greyed out for moment, my final fuzzy thoughts of my brother.

_Nik wasn't moving, what if..? We were sinking. I was skewered. I couldn't gate..I couldn't get us out of here..Niko._

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There was another body-shaking jolt as the car must have hit the river bed. I felt that. Then I felt an annoying tugging on my arm that I wished would just fuck off. Why did my damn brother always have to wake me at 5.30a.m? Only crazy people got up that early to voluntarily exercise.

That's when I came round again. Unfortunately this was with a desperate gasp that let whatever remaining air I'd had in my lungs escape. I had to pull it together, now. Not in 30 seconds time, now. Nik needed me. Time was running out. Too many seconds had gone by already.

I pulled it together. My brain pulled it together, my first useful thoughts being, why had Robin not gone to help Nik? Why had he not swum out of the open windscreen either? The tugging on my arm turned out to be Robin. I quickly realised his own leg was stuck, trapped in twisted metal remains. He clung to my arm and we both looked to Nik who hadn't made even the smallest movement, time was running out for us all. We both knew it.

I knew when Robin noticed my leg, the confusion across his face of why I looked like I was idly sitting in the back seat of a sunken car with my brother lying unconscious in the drivers seat, was instantly erased.

I gripped back on Goodfellows arm till he looked up from my leg. I looked to Nik and back again, knowing, hoping, he would see it in my eyes. "Get my brother out, now". I reached down to my ankle to pull up the small hunting knife I always kept in a holster there and pushed it into Robin's hand. I must have blacked out again then, probably from the sharp movement of reaching for the knife. The next thing I remember is floating, which I thought was odd considering I was still pinned to the seat. Wasn't I?

There was an arm around my neck, then air, gorgeous, life-sustaining air. I found the strength to wretch up the remains of what felt like my lungs themselves while somehow gasping for more oxygen and remaining afloat. It took only a gasp before I realised what was wrong. Somehow, I was up here. Nik was still down there.

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	4. Chapter 4

As I was about to take the largest breath I could to dive back down, Goodfellow unexpectedly popped up beside me.

"Robin, where's Nik?" I croaked, coughing and yet still accusatory. I already knew the answer and now how I'd mysteriously gotten free.

"Cal, I had to, you...he's pinned by the wheel"

That was all I needed to know. I dived. Fuck my leg and fuck Robin. Time was running out. I had to get him out, now.

I pulled myself down, forcing myself deeper and deeper, blinded by the cars lights which by some miracle had remained on, pointing errily skyward and illuminating the murky water. I reached him in moments even with my leg now leaking blood like a sand-timer. Was I too late? Had Robin's judgement call cost me my brother? He came in to view. Conscious. My brother was alive. Right now he was alive.

Our eyes locked as I reached him. As always so many things passed between us in seconds. Of course he was alive, he was my ninja-brother, 'could probably hold his breath all day, no problem. He brought my vision down to his predicament as I slid alongside him as best I could, the wheel of the Ferrari had been pushed so far towards him he was totally pinned, the spent air-bag was also not helping matters. He was well and truly pinned. He looked calm. Only my goddamn brother would be calm. We'd only been metres away from each other but being at the surface, able to breathe had felt like a galaxy away. We reached toward each other at the same time, grasping forearms.

I'm pretty sure he saw the panic in my eyes then.

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Like a bad smell, Robin appeared again beside me. We didn't look at each other, he instead immediately got to work ripping away the air-bag so we could see what we were really dealing with.

Nik had closed his eyes, his head tilted back against the headrest. That was bad. That was really bad. I felt sick and it had nothing to do with my own pain. How badly had he been injured? I felt him grip my arm tighter. Pain. My brother was in pain.

He couldn't have had much air left. It had been minutes. It must have been minutes. Goodfellow was hacking away at the bag, and at the wheel, careful not to catch Niko in his efforts but each knife strike more desperate than the last. It seemed futile. We had to do more.

Nik gripped my arm hard one more time, bringing my gaze back to him. I didn't like what I saw in the grey eyes looking back at me. I didn't like it at all. His arm was now slipping from my own. That was fucking it, we were out of time. No time left for careful. I didn't want to let go but I let his arm fall from my own so I could bring my working leg up as best I could to kick out at the wheel, hoping desperately to dislodge it, anything to release its death-crush on my brother, my family, my life.

I pulled at the seat from behind, _shake, shake, shake._ The desperation was overwhelming. I grabbed for his hand, his arm again but there was no strength to grip me back. Robin was pulling with all his Puck strength on the wheel, his feet braced against the hood. Who knew what damage this was doing to my brother internally but we had to get him out. We had to. I stilled for a moment, sliding a hand against my brothers face, trying to get him to stay with me, shaking, gently, insisting. He had to stay with me. I wouldn't lose him, not like this.

_Nik, you bastard, come on! Look at me, just look at me, open your eyes, stay with me!_

Like a mantra I said it in my head.

_Open your eyes. Look at me. Stay with me._

I could hardly bare to look at his far too pale face, turning a bluish hue.

_Open your eyes. Look at me. Stay with me, brother._

I used the last of my air to breathe what I could into his still lungs. I would give him my last breath. Always. He was my only reason for life.

Robin was tugging at me again. I reeled back ready to unleash hell on him if he even tried to drag me away. He stilled my now pretty-goddamn-panicking form and managed to convey to me that he would take over on the breathing side while I filled my own lungs again from the surface. I saw the hurt and desperation reflected in his own eyes and after squeezing his shoulder in something resembling understanding I reluctantly pushed away to refill my bursting lungs.

I was not leaving my brother. My brother was not leaving me. That was how it would be. It was the _only_ way it would be. I could do this all goddamn night if I had to.

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	5. Chapter 5

It didn't take all night. Lady-luck had returned from her pretty damn inconvenient coffee-break. The next time I dived I found Robin still pulling at the wheel and as I swam past to breathe for my brother, there was a creak and metallic crunch. It was the most wonderful sound I've ever heard. We both quickly realised whatever had happened, it had given us some room and with great effort and several more precious seconds we managed to pull the solid, un-moving, body of my brother free.

I don't remember the next few moments but it must have involved us both dragging Nik up and out to the river shoreline.

"Nik!" I shook my brother. Goodfellow was bringing up half the river off to the side but I threw him only a passing glance as I shook Nik again, feeling for the life of me like a 5-year-old version of myself.

"Come on, Nik. Not now, come on" He wasn't breathing. My brother wasn't breathing. He looked..

I placed my ear on his chest.

No. No. No…

"Cal..?" That was Robin, through wretches.

"Shut up Robin, shut up!" I screamed, I began counting chest compressions "he's fine, he's fine".

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, " I breathed for him, and repeated.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, " I breathed, and repeated.

I was not giving up on my brother. He would never give up on me. We would never give up on each other. We promised.

"Come on Cyrano, come ON!"

This wasn't fucking happening.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, " I breathed, and repeated.

Robin was right by my side now, though he kept just behind my shoulder giving me, giving us, our space, saying nothing about the redness of my eyes or the water escaping from them.

This couldn't be happening. This was Niko. _My_ Niko. Niko the warrior. Nothing could take him. We fought monsters every day, we'd seen things you could barely imagine. We'd fought _more_ than monsters, battled our demons, past and present - and survived, together. Always together. I wouldn't let this fucking river claim him from me.

This was not how a warrior like him went down, sword-less, trapped, not able to swing his Katana with graceful, controlled fury. He was the best man I'd ever known, or could hope to know and he was not going down like this, not without me anyway, that's for fucking sure. A hand from behind me rested on my shoulder which I shrugged off angrily.

"Fuck!" I couldn't take this.

"COME ON NIK!" I slammed my clenched fist down against his chest with the last vestiges of hope, and energy.

My own heart itself nearly exploded as my brother's body arched and he spluttered. Back to life. Back to me.

"Rob, help" I asked barely able to speak. I hadn't needed to ask. We both turned him onto his side to help him rid the body which he kept so pure of the rank water of the river. I wiped a hand across my face, at my leaking eyes. It was a good thing I was already half on the ground. I collapsed further, emotionally and physically spent. I rested against my brothers back, breathing hard, my forehead against his turned shoulder. Uncharacteristically, Robin had one hand rested lightly on us both.

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Minutes passed, but fuck it, time didn't matter now. Robin had silently wrapped the remains of his shirt around my leg and arm to stem the worst of the bleeding. I barely noticed. Nik finally brought up enough water to regain control of his breathing. He rolled slowly towards me, over onto his back. I kept a hand against his shoulder as he did so.

"please" he coughed again, making me wince, but continued, "please, please, tell me you didn't let Goodfellow kiss me?"

I huffed a shaky laugh, Robin and I sharing a look. Goodfellow just grinned, the smile not reaching his eyes. It was then I realised he was almost as shaken as I was.

"only the kiss of life brother" I replied looking down at him, "and believe me, if there had been any other way.."

"You _know_ he's dreamed of that moment since we met..." Robin replied to me, pulling off 'unshaken' far better than I was. My hand was glued to Nik's shoulder. Now he noticed.

"Cal, you're trembling" Nik commented, finding the strength sooner than any other human would, to push himself up on his elbows. I thanked every god I knew of that as best we could tell, he didn't seem to have sustained more than cuts and bruises and a few broken ribs, some of which might have been due to me anyway.

He was studying me, suddenly urgent.

"Cal, where are you hurt?" Yeah, Nik was back. My big brother was back.

He sat up further, reaching to remove my hand that was still on his shoulder. Instead I took it and grasped it firmly. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to break the contact. I didn't care what Robin thought about my clinginess, fuck, the whole world could rat on me for being a pussy-ass-20-something with co-dependence issues. The fact remained. I'd nearly lost Nik. _Really_ nearly lost him. I _had_ lost him. He instinctively gripped my hand back, firm. His grip was back to being firm. Strong. Alive. My eyes were still red, I knew. He hadn't seen till now. He suddenly looked at me differently.

"How close was it?" he turned to ask Robin, who still looked pretty pale himself. We all knew what he meant. Robin just looked to me. Nik returned his gaze - and our eyes met. That was all I needed to do.

"Shit" Nik breathed.

My brother never swears. Well, rarely. Really rarely. We looked at each other and I just wallowed for a moment in having back those grey eyes to look into, the mirror of my own, and yet so much more.

"too close Nik" I said quietly, my voice betraying me, "too close".

Nik always read people right, read situations. That's why he was the one who did the talking and I did the shooting. With me, he never read me wrong, never. He always knew what I needed and when I needed it. No words, no questions, he just knew.

He took our clasped hands and pulled mine to his chest, pushing aside the torn remains of his shirt to lay it against his heart, so I could feel it beating strong beneath my hand. He'd been fucking fighting for his life, dead actually, for all intents and purposes and he knew just from my look exactly what had happened, and that this was what I needed.

"Still here little brother" he spoke softly, as though to 5-year-old Cal. Fuck. I still felt like 5-year-old Cal right now. "I'm still here" he repeated.

Fuck it. I scooted closer and did something I hadn't done in, well, a long time. Since the nightmares, since I'd decided I was old enough not to. Since I grew up. I wrapped my good arm around my brothers neck. He felt me about to break and cupped the back of my head with his hand, first pulling me to rest our foreheads together, then pulling me into a hug. We'd both had a pretty shitty time lately, generally. A sob escaped me, despite my best efforts. He felt it rack my body and in response pulled me tighter.

"Fuck Nik" I half laughed and half cried. "You scared the shit out of me. If I'd have known you'd go to those lengths to avoid the Puck kiss of life..."

I had to pull back a little control on the situation. Even if everyone sitting on this small, sandy patch of river-side beach knew I'd already failed miserably in that department. Robin was kind enough to play along. "Hey, kid, you're bleeding into my $500 shirt, I think I've _already_ gone above and beyond for you two today." He joked. Well, this was Robin. He was half serious, about the shirt, but he was right. He had gone above and beyond, even if I hadn't always seen it.

Nik pushed me gently back to arms-length to look me over. Now he saw Robins remarkably bright shirt in pieces wrapped tightly around my blood-stained leg and the top of my arm.

"Cal.."

I smirked a little. "I got off lightly Nik"

"I guess you're going to tell me the car came off worse?" he asked in his usual concerned but brusk voice. "Shit Cal, did you gate?" he followed, stronger, but touching my face lightly. I knew my nose had started to bleed again and I brushed it away.

"No worries Cyrano, I was all out of juice anyhow" I tried to reassure, "or Robin's Puck EMT skills wouldn't have been required"

I hadn't assuaged his concerns for my condition, I hadn't thought I would. To be honest, I felt like crap and not terribly warmed up crap either. I looked at Robin, seeing for the first time the deep cuts on his own leg, no doubt where he'd hacked with my knife to free himself after I'd pressed it into his hand before passing out from the gate. I'd meant for him to free himself, so he could get to Nik. He'd chosen to get me out instead.

"Robin, why didn't..?"

Robin knew it was coming and cut me off.

"Why didn't I save your brother first when you were doing that pleading-thing at me with those grey rottweiler-puppy eyes?"

I raised my eyebrows in agreement.

"Because your big brother is a fucking Ninja who I knew had a better chance than your mis-firing, gate-impotent Auphe ass had - having choked out your last breath returning to consciousness" he replied confidently, "and because your big brother is also bat-shit crazy when it comes to you, and I didn't want to face_ that_ having left your scrawny ass to drown at the bottom of a Texan river".

Nik chuckled, with a cough and indicated he wanted a little help getting to his feet. We all staggered to standing.

"Good call Goodfellow, good call" Nik grinned, hooking me in a gentle semi-headlock and ruffling a hand through my wet hair.

"Meh" I replied grumpily. I didn't really know what to say to that. To be honest all that mattered to me now was that we were alive. All of us. Though, as we managed to reach the road - you'd hardly have guessed. The Frains were luckily long gone and it was just us on a creepy-ass road, in the arse-end-of-nowhere.

We rested on the remains of the bridge fence, part of which was likely to have recently been in my leg. Goodfellow looked solemnly back down into the darkness.

"my car.." he lamented.

"hope you got insurance Goodfellow" I called back, starting to make my way unaccompanied down the long road, determined to gain back a little cred. I staggered though, the pain in my leg flaring now the adrenaline was wearing off. My brother caught me from out of nowhere, hauling me up before I hit the ground and slinging an arm under my shoulders to keep me vertical. I grinned up at him.

"Still here to catch me huh, Cyrano?"

"Always little brother, always" he grinned back at me as we supported each other. Like always.

"Robin!" we simultaneously shouted back with bored resignation. The puck was still staring at the watery grave of his beloved car - the watery grave that was nearly ours.

"You think he's got insurance?" I asked Nik, under my breath.

"I think it's a rental" he replied quietly. We both laughed as the limping Puck joined us, "I heard that! He called, slinging an arm around the other side of Niko as the three of us staggered down the highway, like the start of some bad joke about a Puck, a half-Auphe and a Ninja. He didn't deny it was a rental though.

The End

**A/N** I hope that didn't disappoint too much after the wait! Please review! WS


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